This is a disc that brings home to me the dilemmas of personal
taste. The performers here are the Ying Quartet. I had not heard
them before but their biography shows them to be experienced
and respected. They are the quartet in residence at the renowned
Eastman School of Music and Harvard. Their recordings on Telarc
of the Tchaikovsky Quartets were nominated for a Grammy. Elsewhere,
I have read glowing reviews of this particular disc. So why
does their playing not just leave me cold but at some points
I really dislike the musical choices they make? I have too much
respect for any musician who is willing to put themselves under
the microscope of the modern studio so I will outline my issues
and let you decide whether you wish to investigate further.

This is a good and generous programme and if you have a penchant
for Russian Romantic music there is a great deal here to please.
Arensky was very much a disciple of Tchaikovsky - the 2nd
Quartet is dedicated to the recently deceased composer’s memory
– and much of his music languishes in the shadow of the more
famous writer. This is appealing and skilfully written music
in its own right even if it lacks the extraordinary melodic
gift that Tchaikovsky seemed to be able to call upon endlessly.
Both quartets contain variation movements which showcase his
remarkable understanding of string writing with everything imitated
from bagpipes to balalaikas, festive dances and poignant laments.
In a cynical moment you do wonder if variation writing is the
refuge of those unable to produce substantial original material
but who can develop on a smaller time-scale existing themes.
The central Theme and Variations from the second quartet was
arranged by Arensky as his string orchestra work Variations
on a theme by Tchaikovsky which remains his best known/least
unknown work. The Piano Quintet which completes the CD is another
winner and well worth hearing.

So far so good. My issue is not with the music and indeed not
with the actual playing ability of the quartet. I have heard
even finer string quartet playing but that verges on the superhuman;
what we have here is technically good. No, it’s the series of
strange musical choices and collective style of playing. Simply
put, the quartet play at two extremes; dynamic verging on the
aggressive or rather wan. There is little subtle gradation of
instrumental colour. I find their use of vibrato too unvaried
– again during the energetic or loud passages there is an unrelenting
big vibrato that is too uniform and unsubtle. The recording
gives them a less homogenised sound than many quartets – no
bad thing and the players are very clearly laid out across the
sound-stage with more separation than is often preferred in
chamber music. Again, no bad thing. The cellist is sat in from
the edge of the quartet. His nutty resonant tone benefits most
from the recording style with his very articulate playing cutting
through the texture impressively. I have big problems with many
of the choices made by the leader. She favours either a muscular
style that verges on the violent or a strange almost parody
of schmaltzy playing. The use of portamenti is an established
expressive device more favoured a hundred years ago than now
to ‘bend’ into the pitch of a note while shifting position.
It is relatively out of favour these days because it is perceived
as sentimental and also runs counter to the current preference
for ultra-clean playing with no audible changes of position.
I rather like the judicious use of sliding and in the hands
of a sympathetic player I find it hugely expressive. Here I
find it applied arbitrarily and crudely. I don’t intend this
to become a shopping list of moments I don’t like but to mention
a couple; the very first bar of the 2nd movement
of the 1st quartet has a scoop that sounds almost
cartoonic. That this is then copied in the third bar too gives
the music an air of parody. Also what frustrates me is the lack
of consistency; the same music repeats with identical printed
phrasing in bar 5 – but no scoop. I was so taken aback by this
simply odd choice that I tracked down printed parts in case
Arensky had given any kind of indication for such phrasing.
This is, after all, music I have never heard before. In the
edition I found there is no indication of any kind of sliding
– to be honest it is hardly ever marked. Mahler is one of the
few composers who clearly asks for specific and usually exaggerated
slides. What following the score did indicate is how the Ying
Quartet choose to ignore the quieter dynamics – this same passage
is marked pp, you really would not know. Worse still,
in the trio of the 3rd movement Menuetto there
is a slide up to a C which can only be described as a smear
– it is quite possibly the ugliest bit of playing by a good
violinist I have ever heard. It almost sounds as if the note
has been misread and in correcting the pitch the finger has
slid. I find it all but impossible that this is a preferred
choice. Lastly in the finale of the same quartet there is a
mini cadenza for the lead violin. The player here again opts
for a cheap operetta zigeuner slide up to the top note
that while perfectly well executed is simply crude. Elsewhere
the quartet is collectively guilty. At one point there is a
series of pizzicato chords attacked with the ferocity a Bartók
or a Shostakovich would purr at but totally musically wrong
in Arensky; the score is marked just f with an accent
not the open E twang we get here [Variation 4 2nd
Quartet track 10]. Lines of accented notes are hit with equality
just rendering them punchbags and giving the music no line or
direction.

Part of the problem is that after a time you reach a critical
(pardon the pun) mass of irritation where you stop listening
for any beauty and wait for the next grist-to-the-mill annoyance.
This was rather unfortunate for the piano quintet because I
was rather over this disc before it arrived. Here’s another
oddity – nowhere on the liner or cover is the name of the pianist
– Adam Nieman – mentioned. Only in reading the “conversation”
liner note with the quartet’s viola player is it revealed. In
a 10 page liner of which 1 page is technical information, 2
pages are pictures of the quartet and a further 2 are a biography
of the quartet Mr Nieman merits not a single word of information
or biography. If I were his agent .… More to the point the playing
of the quartet is rather tempered by the more refined touch
of Mr Nieman. Also, the engineers have recessed the quartet
back behind the piano ‘picture’ making overall for a rather
more pleasant listening experience. The quintet also features
a theme and variations movement and here, with the variation
for piano and – initially - solo cello [track 17 around 2:00]
is found, at last, some playing of considerable beauty and poetry.
Overall, this is still big-boned expansive music and I still
feel there is a lot more subtlety to be found in this work.

Arensky makes substantial technical demands of all the players
both here and in the quartets. It would be churlish of me not
to say that on that score the Ying Quartet acquit themselves
well although no better I would say than any of two dozen other
international quartets. The one thing I would take from this
disc is that this is a rather wonderful triptych of works which
separately and collectively deserve to be far better known.
The identical coupling is available on an older Marco Polo disc
from the Lajtha Quartet and Ilona Prunyi which I have not heard.
Other than that the only other choices are for the 2nd
Quartet in its original Violin, Viola, 2 Cellos form. I am still
wrestling with just how negatively I have responded to this
disc – usually I revel in the sheer visceral thrill of players
launching themselves at music and not opting for the safe percentage
game. This brings home to me how risk-taking alone is not of
itself interesting or exciting. It needs to be allied to innate
musicality. Too often what I hear in this case has the feeling
of being applied from the outside rather than being the players’
intuitive response to the notes on the page. I feel obliged
to reiterate the very positive responses I’ve seen elsewhere
to this disc but it is not one to which I will be returning.

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